Quirky Confidence
by Fist-it-Out
Summary: Nat Wolff had always been a good kid; he got decent grades, did his chores, and took up the responsiblity of raising his brother on his own. So why does nothing ever go his way? Why can he never talk to his never ending crush, Rosalina? Why can't he preform for a crowd? Will his confidence just come back, or will his quirky personality get in the way?
1. Chapter 1

Plot Summary: Nat Wolff had always been a good kid; he got decent grades, did his chores, and took up the responsiblity of raising his brother on his own. So why does nothing ever go his way? Why can he never talk to his never ending crush, Rosalina? Why can't he preform for a crowd? Will his confidence just come back, or will his quirky

* * *

Nat Wolff has had some pretty bad days. But in all his eleven years, he hasn't had a day this bad. Here he was, sitting outside the principal's office for something he didn't start. It all started earlier that day...

He woke up to the annoying sounds his brother makes when he gets up. He rolled out of bed and walked into the bathroom. The horrors of the previous night stained his expression, and his appearance. His eyes were red, droopy, and one was swollen. He had a cut on his lip and a small bruise growing on his cheeks. He liftef his shirt to reveal a multitude of bruises forming on his torso. He trudged over to the shower and stepped into the steamy water that burned his cuts and bruises. He got out a while later and put on his clothes.

When he went on in the kitchen, Alex was eating his cereal.

"Who's the girl in our couch?" Alex asked with his mouth full of cocoa puffs.

"That's Rosalina." Nat said, carefully getting his own cereal.

"Why is she here?" Alex asked.

"Because she can't go home." Nat said.

"Why?" Alex asked again.

"Because it's dangerous." Nat said.

"Okay." Alex said. Rosalina began to stir.

_*Flashback*_

_"Hey Nat, there's a party tonight at an eighth grader's. You wanna go?" David asked._

_"I can't. There's no one to watch Alex." Nat said._

_"I'll ask my mom to come. Come on Nat, this is middle school." David said._

_"Okay, but we leave after she gets here." Nat said._

_*end flashback*_

"So your Rosalina." Alex said.

"Yeah. Why?" Rosalina asked. Before Alex continued, Nat covered his mouth.

"He. He just means that. I had to. Explain. Why you were. Here." Nat said, barely finishing the sentence.

"Oh. Okay." Rosalina said. She stood from the couch. She went over to Nat and hugged him. "Thank you." She whispered in his ear. She kissed his cheek and went for the door.

"And if you need anything, just call." She said as she exited.

_*flashback*_

_David and Nat walked into what might be the end of their young lives. People were illegally drinking, passed out, or making out._

_"David can we go?" Nat asked._

_"We've been here ten seconds." David said._

_"Please?" Nat begged._

_"Let's at least spend ten minutes." David said. "After ten minutes, meet me up front." They split up. Nat walked towards the back. The farther he went, the more people were drunk or kissing. He'd never been more disgusted in his life. He ended up at the far back. It took him five minutes, so he figured he better head back. Until he heard her._

_"Leave me alone." Rosalina was saying. Nat made his way to where the sound was coming from. There was a guy, a little older than her, and he was getting really close to her._

_"Get away from me." Rosalina said. Nat knew Rosalina from when she used to hang out with them._

_"Come on babe." the guy said._

_"Hey, leave her alone." Nat said, standing up for her._

_"And who are you?" He asked._

_"That's not your business but if she says to leave her alone you better leave her alone." Nat said._

_"I don't think I will." the guy said. He tried to get closer to Rosalina, but Nat jumped in between._

_"Nat, don't get yourself hurt." Rosalina whispered to him. _

_*end flashback* _

Nat had a pretty strange day. All his friends congratulated him. The word had gone around about the fight the previous night. Word had gotten to the principal, and now him, Rosalina, and the guy (who's name is Michel) were sitting outside his office.

They were called in.


	2. Chapter 2

Never in his life had Nat imagined that he'd be called into the principal's office for something bad. But is it bad to protect your friends? To help others who can't help themselves? To stop bullies and abusers?

_*flashback* _

_Just before Michel had kicked Nat one last time to knock him out, the police showed up. Nat scrambled to his feet, grabbed Rosalina's hand and scurried to the door. David was waiting by the bus stop. When he saw his friends, he stood up. _

_*end flashback* _

All three of them were sent home early. they had been suspended for two days. Since Rosalina couldn't go home, she went with Nat. When they got there, this time she told Nat to lay on the couch and she sat in the egg chair. She tossed him a bag of frozen peas to put on his eye.

They didn't talk, just watched tv. Alex came home after a few hours. He went straight to his room and soon after Nat fell asleep. Rosalina quietly and silently removed his shirt to look at his battle scars. She bent down and sat next to him. She placed his head in her lap and stroked his hair. He woke up and looked at her with big eyes.

"Hi Nat." Rosalina said.

"H-hi. Why di-didn't you go ho-home?" Nat said.

"Because I'm gonna take care of you." Rosalina said.

"But why?" Nat asked.

"Because you protected me yesterday, so I'm gonna make sure your all right." Rosalina said. Alex walked out.

"Nat, I'm hungry." Alex said. Nat started getting up but Rosalina got up instead and lay him down.

"I'm gonna get food." Rosalina said. "But I can't cook so I'll just order a pizza."

20 minutes later, they were eating pizza.

"Nat, who was that kid with you last night?" Rosalina asked.

"David." Nat said from his spot on the couch.

"Alex, invite David over please." Rosalina said.

"Don't you remember David?" Nat asked.

"I remember of him. But all of you bring changed so much. Like the other days, I saw Thomas in the hall and I didn't even know it was him." Rosalina said.

"You've changed too." Nat said.

"No I haven't." Rosalina said.

"Yeah. Two years ago you had light brown hair that was super straight. Now your hair is darker, longer, curlier, and your taller. Your way prettier now than back then." Nat said.

"Thank you but you've changed way more than me." Rosalina said.

"How?" Nat said.

"Your hair is longer, your taller, and your voice is a smidge deeper." Rosalina said. Alex came back into the room.

"You two are so cute." Alex said as he sat back in the egg chair.

"Oh stop." Rosalina said.

~NBB~

It was the next day and Alex already went to school. Rosalina was sitting on the couch with Nat's head in her lap again. He was asleep and Rosalina was watching a movie. She wasn't paying any attention, just forming a master plan.

Nat woke up around noon and looked up at Rosalina. They smiled at each other.

"Go put on your swim trunks." Rosalina said, helping Nat up. He nodded and went into his room. He came back out.

"Rosalina? Where'd you go?" He asked.

"I'm in the bathroom." Rosalina said. "Don't sorry I'm not naked." Nat opened the door. Rosalina was crouched near the tub. The water was running steamy and there were few bubbles in the tub.

"Why am I in my swim trunks?" Nat asked, tiring on the toilet.

"Because your gonna take a bath." Rosalina said.

"But why do I have to be in my bathing suit?" Nat asked.

"Because I'm giving you a bath." Rosalina said.

"Oh." Nat said.

"Look at that. You can finally talk to me." She said, squeezing his cheeks.

"It's not that hard." He said, looking at his feet.

"Why not?" Rosalina asked, helping him into the tub.

"Well, your nice, and friendly, and really pretty." He said the last part quietly.

"Thank you." Rosalina said, putting water on his head.

"Rosalina!" he yelled.

"What happened?" She asked.

"What'd you do to the water?" He asked.

"Well, there's some alcohol in it," Rosalina said.

"You could've warned me." he said.

After she finished washing...

"Okay, I'll be back. Wash under your swim trunks." Rosalina said, leaving. After ten minutes, she knocked on the door.

"Enter," Nat called. She came back.

"Step out of the tub." She drained the water and then filled the tub with something in a huge pot she brought in. She had him soak in the pot liquid, and didn't tell him what it was.

Sh he had him go to his room and out on his boxers. Then she went in.

"What was in the pot water?" Nat asked as she put ointment on his bruises.

"It was medicine tea." Rosalina said, going over to his closet.

"No. You are not picking out my clothes." Nat said.

"Then what am I doing?" Rosalina said. She made him put on a white button down shirt and and Jean shorts. Then she made him sit down so that she could put his socks and sneakers on.

"You stay on the couch while I take a shower." She commanded Nat. He rolled his eyes and lay on the couch. He flipped through the channels for a while until Rosalina came out.

"When'd you bring your clothes?" He asked.

"This morning when I took Alex to school." Rosalina said. "Come on." She took up keys on the counter.

"Where are we going?" Nat asked, getting off the couch.

"Well, Alex says you wanna go on a date with me. Here's your date." Rosalina said. Nat was so surprised he bolted to the door.

They walked down to the front of the building. There was a horse drawn carriage waiting for them. Rosalina helped him and they were off. They went to the Statue of liberty and climbed to the top.

While Nat went to the bathroom, Rosalina disappeared. They both came back at the same time.

"Rosalina," Nat said as they looked over at the mid noon sky.

"Yeah." She said, turning to him.

"I got you something." He reached behind him. "It's a rose for my Rosie." He put it in her hair.

"Nat it's beautiful." Rosalina said, hugging him. Nat winced a little, but hugged her back.

They noticed that there was a man playing a beautiful song on his violin. They went over and danced with grace and surprising talent to his song. Nat was having so much fun he didn't even not ie the growing crowd surrounding him; he was terrified of preforming in front of other people. Soon the so came to an end and he realized there was a crowd surrounding him.

Before he could react, Rosalina was pulling him down the stairs.

"That was so much fun." She said.

"There were people watching." Nat said.

"Yeah so? It'd not like you have stage fright." She said.

"I do." Nat said.

"Since when?" She asked.

"Well..." Nat said.

_*Flashback*_

_It was a few days after the performance on the roof. Cole and Josh had quit, and the had found a new guy, Qaasim. They were preparing for another concert. During the concert Alex had sneezed, throwing a whole song off. They were booed off the stage, and the trama was so much for Nt he'd never been able to reform again._

_*End Flashback*_

"Wow." Rosalina said as they emerged into the sun light.

"I just think that once I get on the stage everyone will judge me like this is my final judgement and it freaks me out." Nat said.

"What's final judgement?" Rosalina asked.

"At the end of time, Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. He will separate them, like goats and sheep." Nat said, recalling a scripture from the Bible.

"why does it freak you out so much?" Rosalina asked.

"I don't know." Nat said. "Why are we here?" He realized they were at an all to familiar apartment building.

"This is the first step into getting your life back on track. Step one: get rid of some of your responsibilities. Starting with Alex." Rosalina said. They knocked on a door. Jesse opened it.

"Hi Jesse. Do you remember us?" Rosalina said.

"Nat, why are you here? You dad fired me." Jesse said.

"Then right after he ran off and never came back." Nat said.

"So then shouldn't you be at school?" Jesse asked.

"We got suspended." Rosalina said.

"Why?" Jesse asked.

"There was a party and this kid was being a jerk and beat Nat up and I was the cause." Rosalina said.

"Oh." Jesse said.

"But I brought Nat here because my mission is to get his life back to normal. The first thing we need is for you to help them out. They don't have a lot of money so don't ask about pay." Rosalina said.

"Please?" Nat begged.

"Sure. But I'll start tomorrow." Jesse said, shooing them away.

"Come on. Schools almost over and we need to get our work." Rosalina said as they walked down the streets.

"Rosalina, we are suspended and you want to do make up work?" Nat asked.

"We either do it now or do all of it when we get back." Rosalina said.

"True." Nat said as they walked up the steps of the school. They went into the office.

"Hi Ms. Stephn. Can we get our work?" Rosalina said.

"Why aren't you two in school?" Ms. Stephn asked.

"We got suspended and Luke like yo work on our make up work." Rosalina answered. Ms. Stephn brought back their work just as the last bell rang. They waited outside for their friends, or Nat's friends. They all came o followed by Alex and began their walk back to Nat's.

"What'd you guys do?" David asked Nat and Rosalina.

"Well, most of the day he slept on me so I couldn't go anywhere so I just watched tv." Rosalina said.

"Then we went to the Statue of Liberty and danced in front of a crowd." Nat said with a shiver.

"Then we went to talk to jesse and now we're here." Rosalina said.

"Wait, you actually managed to talk to her?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah." Nat said.

"How? You could never talk to her after you lost your courage." Alex said.

"Well, she was easy to warm up to. She's very persuasive, and very nice. She says crazy funny things, and isn't afraid to speak her mind. And she's been taking care of me for two days now which is really nice and she's kinda pretty." Nat said the last part quietly. Rosalina raised an eyebrow.

"Not that your pretty to me, I mean you are pretty. But that your pretty in general. I'm not saying you are pretty, wait, your not not pretty. Not that your ugly, I mean of course your not ugly your gorgeous. Ugh! what I'm saying is that you-" Nat was cut short when Rosalina got frustrated with his confusing ways and pressed her lips to his to shut him up.

Everyone stopped and was shocked, especially Nat. He never expected this day to come so soon, especially now. He was feeling pain in his chest earlier, and now all of his pain was gone. His pain was replaced by the butterflies he gets whenever she's around. He decided to instead of just stand there like a doof he'd kiss her back. His friends were even more surprised by this then the first time.

"Woah." Nat said.


	3. Chapter 3

After a few minutes, they continued their walk home. Nat couldn't contain his happiness. His cheeks were a deep red and his smile never left his face. His brain was doing cartwheels and he couldn't even express himself in words. He wasn't even listening to what his friends were talking about. His mind was running wild with new thoughts by the minute. Soon they reached the apartment and went in.

They dropped their school bags by the door. Alex plopped himself in the egg chair, David, Thomas, and Qaasim sat in the yellow chair, and Rosalina sat down on the purple couch with Nat. Rosalina wouldn't allow Nat to sit and forced him to ly down.

"Nat, we never got to see your bruises." Thomas said.

"Okay, but they're not what they were two days ago." Nat said.

"Why?" Qaasim asked.

"Because Rosalina has been acting like a mom ever since she got here." Alex said. "She even forced us to take baths. Not showers, baths."

"At least the bruises are healing." Rosalina said as Nat sat up to take off his shirt. His friends gasped at the sight. He tossed it to the side and lay down again, used to the position.

"Don't they hurt?" David asked.

"Like fire." Nat said, adjusting himself on Rosalina's lap. Soon, he was asleep.

"Let's get down to business." Rosalina said in a serious tone.

"What'd you mean?" Thomas asked.

"If you haven't noticed, Nat's life had been a mess for two years." Rosalina pointed out. "My job is to fix that."

"So why do you need us?" David asked.

"Because at the end of my master plan, we're going to get him to overcome his stage fright with a concert. I hate saying this but you guys are the only friends he has and the only people I can trust." Rosalina said.

"What's your master plan?" Alex asked.

"Step 1, take away some of his responsibilities. He may never admit this but, he really needs a break. He has to take care of himself and Alex, m ake sure the bills are paid, food is served, they have lunch at school, and that they get good grades. I've already got the bills and taking care part done, and everything else should be down by the end of our suspension." Rosalina explained. "Step 2: get him to warm up to the idea of preforming. If he still refuses, we skip and go to step 3. Step 3 is, plan a concert without him knowing. Alex is gonna teach you the songs. By that time, we should be able to convince him that he can do. If all else fails then we force him to do it."

"Should be easy." David said.

"But Nat's like a super genius. How are you gonna keep him from finding out?" Alex asked.

"I've already planned that. I'm the distraction. He really likes me, so I'll use it to distract him." Rosalina said.

"So your using him?" Qaasim said.

"If I wanted to use him, would I even be doing this?" Rosalina asked.

"So, by helping him, your gonna distract him by helping yourself?" Alex clarified.

"Yup." Rosalina said.

"Wow." David said as Nat started waking up. He turned so he was looking straight at Rosalina."Rosalina said she likes you." Alex said. Rosalina shot him a dirty look and Nat blushed.

"What are you guys doing? Don't you have to go home and junk?" Nat asked them.

The guys got up and headed out. Alex went to the table and started his homework and Nat just smiled at Rosalina. She smiled back, and sat him up straight.

The next day, Nat and Rosalina woke up on each other. They had fallen asleep watching a movie, and they were sleeping on the couch. Nat woke up first, and was under Rosalina. He couldn't move or he would wake her up but he didn't have to wait long because she woke up after two minutes. She smiled at him, then went into the kitchen.

"Nat and Rosalina, David came and took me to school. He packed my lunch, see you later. -Alex." Rosalina read from a note on the fridge.

"What time is it?" Nat asked.

"Two!" Rosalina exclaimed.

"Wow. We were sleeping forever." Nat said. He got up. "I'm gonna go take a shower." It was two thirty when he came out and then Rosalina went in. They left at three to go get Alex.

Rosalina forced them to take the long way so that the guys had time to use the music room.

On Friday, they went back to school. They turned in their make up work, and Rosalina sar with them at lunch.

"Nat, you must be so happy." Thomas said.

"Why?" Nat asked.

"You spent two days out of school, and you spent them with a girl who isn't your cousin." Thomas said. "And tomorrow is Saturday. That means you spent half the week out."

"Man, why'd I have to be a bystander?" David asked.

"Rosalina, what's it like to have braces?" Qaasim asked.

"Awful. I can't have gum, apples, popcorn, licorice, or Carmel apples. And it's really hard to floss with braces." Rosalina said.

"When do you get them off?" Nat asked.

"Two months." Rosalina said. "Nat, you doing anything tomorrow?"

"Since when did I do anything?" Nat asked.

"True. Anyway, we're having a sleepover at your house." Rosalina said before leaving.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, next chapter will be up before: FRIDAY THE THRITEENTH! **

**.O. **

**Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


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